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OPINION

Billy Bush, Roger Ailes got big bucks

Perhaps this marks me as naive, but I've goggled at the sheer sums of money powerful men have recently been paid simply to go away and stop causing trouble. Forty million dollars to Roger Ailes, a man accused of persistent and pervasive sexual harassment? Millions of dollars to Billy Bush, whose appearance cheering Donald Trump's pronouncements about grabbing women on the "Access Hollywood" tape had tanked his already rickety brand?

It must be extraordinarily pleasant to occupy a world where even after rendering yourself noxious, the sort of person who is more pollutant than asset to a modern corporate environment or the cozy environment of a morning show, you can get paid astonishing sums of money to stop hanging around and causing trouble.

And it's not only money.

As CNN's Brian Stelter reported, Bush's negotiations with NBC about his exit were so granular that the final agreement even governed what each party could say on Bush's way out the door. The result was that NBC's Noah Oppenheim had to say of Bush, who served as a cheerleader for Trump's vulgar, disturbing boasts and then encouraged a colleague to hug him, "He was a valued colleague and longtime member of the broader NBC family. We wish him success as he goes forward." Ailes's sins were worse, and seemed to be more pervasive; on his way out the door, Lachlan and James Murdoch alluded to the circumstances behind his departure, though they joined their father, Rupert, in praising his vision.

What a pleasure it must be to live in such a rarefied environment, where the consequences of your bad decisions are so cushioned for you! This is not to suggest that being fired from running Fox News, where Ailes made millions of dollars each year, or the "Today" show, is not a punishment. It undoubtedly is. But it's much easier to ride out such a punishment in a $36 million Palm Beach mansion like the one Ailes bought after his exit from Fox News was announced.

And it's certainly easier to do so when your former corporate masters are being careful not to sully your name further than you have already, wishing you luck on your way out the door and praising your genius, even if said genius didn't extend to concluding that maybe you shouldn't have asked your female employees to twirl for you.

By contrast, let's look at what the women who had to deal with these men are getting out of the interaction. Gretchen Carlson, whose lawsuit precipitated Ailes' demise, settled for $20 million, which is not pocket change. It remains to be seen how Andrea Tantaros' lawsuit against Fox News will shake out.

But it's not exactly as if Fox News is moving proactively to set up some sort of compensation fund. And it doesn't seem that Arianne Zucker, who had to greet Trump and Bush at the end of that excruciating bus ride, or Nancy O'Dell, who worked with Bush and whom Trump claimed to have "moved on," are getting compensated in any way for having to put up with this obvious nonsense.

What about a system whereby every time a man undermines a female colleague when she's not around, or encourages her to be physically affectionate with a client or someone from another company, he loses a certain percentage of his salary, which is then paid to that woman? How about anything at all that shifts the incentives from paying people to go away to rewarding people who put up with sexist nonsense to stay and do great work?